Guru Dave

Doesn’t the moniker “Guru Dave” conjure up a Hollywood image of a serene swami with a creme jeweled turban with a red plume jutting out of the front, like a slightly loopy quail? Now that I’ve thought that up, I’m almost sad it has no relation to reality.

But a guru Dave is. He is the guy who installed our AV system and did a masterful job of it, and left the house in cleaner and better condition than when he found it. We got his name from our neighbor where Guru Dave also did a masterful AV job. So if you want an AV guy in the SF Bay Area, you want Dave.

While Dave was working in my house he discovered my seedlings. Maybe it was the entrancing aroma of moldy seedlings that got his attention. Or maybe it was their spindly stretching for greater amounts of sun that flagged him down. Or maybe it was that I had them all lined up against the sliding glass door and it was impossible not to trip over them. Anyway, he saw my seedlings and he took pity.

It turns out that Dave has an enormous garden in a microclimate not that different than my own. He has decades of gardening experience, AND he has a greenhouse. (I wonder if he has a garden gnome?) Anyway, he took a tour of my garden and told me what he thought would do well and what he thought would “laugh at me”. Evidently most of my garden finds me hilarious. Small comfort to know I amuse plants.

After Dave stopped laughing, he generously gave me 10 seedlings for plants that should do well where I live. 2 broccoli, 2 spinach, 2 zucchini, 2 lettuce and 2 of his prized personal line of tomatoes that he has tested in our less-than-tomato-friendly environment and found to be prolific. I planted out most of those on April 25th. As far as I can tell, his plants seem to be doing quite well despite my care. He also gave me some tips which I wrote down, including the grand idea of growing greenbeans along the back fence and the merits of greenhouses. I can’t act on all of them at the moment, but the seeds are sown.

Anyway, so that’s Guru Dave. And I think I’m going to email him a photo of my maggoty radishes and ask if it’s time to cry yet. I cut a radish open and it wasn’t nearly the horrifying spectacle that I was anticipating. It looked relatively civilized, although there were a few bug holes around the edges.